Some are fanciful, some are funny, some are deadly serious, some are likely, some are pipedreams. And technically it’s already too late for MY2018 but if we see some of these things being teased at the end of this year, we’ll all be happier.

1. Cheaper stuff

Somewhat inevitable but the common call for lower prices was often tempered with a voice of reason along the lines of ‘not-cheap is fine but things have become ridiculous of late’.

3. Honesty

AKA marketeers go home. There’s only so many times you can read the following clichés: ‘longer, lower, slacker’, ‘laterally stiff, vertically compliant’, ‘lighter and stiffer’, ‘climbs light a short travel bike, descends like a DH bike’, ‘corners on rails’, ‘linear then progressive’.

4. Sustainability

This wasn’t just an eco voice of going green (although there were plenty of statements along those lines) but it was combined with a desire for things to last longer and/or be home-serviceable. Less throwing stuff in the bin when it wears out after a few months’.

5. Shimano 12 speed

In the camera world Canon are lagging behind Nikon after many years of being in the lead. You can draw parallels to Shimano and SRAM in the MTB drivetrain market. Shimano have to do something significant soon. Even their biggest fans are eyeing up Eagle.

6. Gearboxes

7. Accurate weights

If the mountain bike industry thought that the weight weenies had zipped off to ride road bikes, think again! We had loads of folk piping up on our social media channels angry about the erroneous weights stated against bike components.

8. Voice activated droppers

Well, if you don’t ask…

9. Electronic Eagle

Some folk are never satisfied are they? Not happy with SRAM Eagle’s huge gear range and impressive shifting performance, people are now demanding the introduction of electronic (and ideally wireless) shifting to the Eagle remit. Blimey! You never know though, SRAM are most definitely on it.

10. Shorter longer dropper posts

ie. longer travel dropper posts that can fit into the same space as shorter ones. Ideal to fit inside all the frames that have pivots half way up the seat tube.

13. No more cable routing as an afterthought

14. Kill pressfit to death

15. Anti theft trackers fitted as standard

16. Better bearings and bigger bolts

Hello? This is the real world calling. We’re fed up of rounded-off bolts (mech hangers are the worst culprit these days) and sloppy knocky bearings.

17. Moar online bike builderz

Seems no one likes riding around on a bike that’s exactly the same as someone else’s. The ability to choose and tweak the finishing kit of your new bike goes down a storm with punters. Orange have always been good at it. Now Specialized are getting involved. There’s bound to be more coming along.

18. Innovation

A small but passionate cry for some thinking outside of the box. It would great to see some bold companies addressing the bigger, elephant-in-the-room issues of mountain biking (derailleur drivetrains, steering geometry etc) rather than just perennially tinkering about with the peripheral parts.